Recently, the gay dating app Blued was found to have an IP address traced to Zhongnanhai, the headquarters of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership, sparking widespread speculation. Many online users began guessing which top CCP official might be secretly using the app. Shortly afterward, Chinese authorities urgently banned the software and ordered Apple to remove it from its app store.
According to reports, the CCP has officially instructed Apple to remove two gay dating apps — Blued and Finka — from the China region of its App Store. Insiders revealed that this directive came from the Cyberspace Administration of China.
An Apple spokesperson told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that the company acts in accordance with Chinese regulations: “We comply with the laws of the countries where we operate.” The spokesperson also noted that Finka’s developer had already voluntarily withdrawn the app from overseas markets earlier, while Blued has in recent years only been available in China.
Both Blued and Finka are owned by Hong Kong-based companies. Blued is one of China’s most influential gay dating platforms, with more than 50 million users worldwide. Mainland netizens say that the full versions of both apps can no longer be downloaded from Apple or Android app stores. Although the main app has been removed, a “Lite” version of Blued can still be found on the Chinese App Store, and its international version, HeeSay, continues to operate overseas.
Reports also suggest that in addition to Blued and Finka, the popular U.S. dating app Grindr has also been simultaneously taken down. The official WeChat account of the overseas Chinese LGBTQ organization “Chinese Rainbow Alliance” was also reportedly wiped clean.
Success
You are now signed up for our newsletter
Success
Check your email to complete sign up
According to statistics from the International Lesbian and Gay Association (ILGA), as of 2020, there were about 70 million homosexuals in China — roughly 45 million men and 25 million women — accounting for about 5 percent of the total population, with the ratio increasing year by year.
The YouTube commentator “Finance Cold Eye” claimed in a recent program that both China’s entertainment industry and the political elite within Zhongnanhai are “rife with homosexuality.” The host pointed out that Blued recently showed an account location traced to Zhongnanhai, sparking public speculation. Many netizens guessed the account could belong to Xi Jinping, Li Qiang, Zhao Leji, Wang Huning, or Cai Qi. Soon after, the CCP swiftly banned the app and ordered Apple to remove it.
The commentator added that the CCP’s move was also motivated by another reason: China’s plummeting birth rate. People increasingly avoid marriage and childbearing, and with the rise of feminism and homosexuality, the birth rate has dropped even further. He claimed that the CCP fears a shortage of “labor to exploit,” and has thus begun cracking down on both feminism and homosexuality.
Online users mocked the government’s hypocrisy:
- “Officials can set fires, but commoners can’t light lamps. They’re gay themselves but still persecute gays.”
- “Aren’t many high-ranking officials homosexuals? They ban gay apps because they’re guilty and afraid of exposure.”
- “Zhongnanhai is the most decadent place of all.”
- “Those elites all prefer men.”
- “Why are there so many perverts nowadays? It’s terrifying!”
- “If the CCP really wants to suppress homosexuality, start by exposing the powerful gay elites in the entertainment industry — otherwise it’s meaningless.”
- “Then they should first arrest those twisted criminals who caused the death of Yu Menglong — those gay tycoons are the real evildoers!”
Some went further, expressing despair about life in China:
- “Who dares to have children? You’ll be exploited, treated like a resource, or even killed — it’s horrifying.”
- “So many missing children never found, so many unemployed struggling to eat — who still has the will to marry?”
- “No wonder people refuse to have kids. You might raise them only for them to die like Yu Menglong — just thinking of it breaks my heart.”
- “With no social, medical, educational, or safety guarantees, people are born only to serve as beasts of burden — or organ sources for the elite. Who dares to give birth?”
Others lamented: “Homosexuality and sexual decadence are signs of the end times. The same appeared before the fall of the Roman Empire. The world today is in chaos — especially China. The land that once held 5,000 years of civilization has been corrupted by the Communist Party into moral decay and ruin. Alas!”
By Cai Siyun
